Parker Waichman LLP, a national law firm dedicated to protecting the legal rights of victims of defective medical devices, has filed a metal-on-metal hip replacement lawsuit on behalf of a North Carolina woman who sustained serious injuries, allegedly due to DePuy Orthopaedics' recalled ASR hip replacement devices. The complaint, which names DePuy Orthopaedics and its parent, Johnson & Johnson, as Defendants, was filed on May 16, 2012, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, where thousands of DePuy ASR Hip Implant lawsuits are currently consolidated in the DePuy Orthopaedics, Inc. ASR Hip Implant Products Liability Litigation (1:12-dp-21188-DAK).

According to the complaint, the Plaintiff, a woman from Banner Elk, North Carolina, was implanted with a DePuy ASR hip implant on her left hip on August 21, 2007. On February 19, 2008, she was implanted with a DePuy ASR hip replacement device on her right hip. According to the complaint, the Plaintiff subsequently suffered hip and back pain, instability and clicking of her right hip. The Plaintiff had the ASR hip implant device on her right side explanted on March 24, 2011.

According to Parker Waichman LLP, the DePuy ASR Hip Implant is a metal-on-metal hip replacement device. In August 2010, DePuy issued a worldwide recall of the ASR Hip Resurfacing System and ASR Acetabular System, after data from the National Joint Registry of England and Wales showed that 1 out of every 8 patients (12%-13%) who had received the devices had to undergo revision surgery within five years of receiving it. [depuy.com/asr-hip-replacement-recall]

Thousands of lawsuits have since been filed against DePuy and its parent, Johnson & Johnson, by ASR Hip Implant recipients who allegedly suffered serious injuries due to the defective devices. Most of those lawsuits have been consolidated in the litigation now underway in the Northern District of Ohio. The first trials in that litigation are expected to get underway sometime next year.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is currently conducting a safety review of metal-on-metal hip implants, including the DePuy ASR devices. Last May, the agency directed 21 companies that market all-metal hip replacements, including DePuy, to conduct post-market studies of their products to determine if they were shedding dangerous amounts of metallic debris in patients. The FDA recently announced that its Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Devices Panel will meet on June 27 and 28 to discuss the risks and benefits of metal-on-metal hip systems, and make potential patient and practitioner recommendations for their use. [bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-01/j-j-hip-patients-will-take-bellwether-cases-to-trial-1-.html]

Most recently, a study published in the May issue of the Journal of Arthroplasty linked corrosion of the head taper junction in patients with 36-mm diameter metal-on-metal hip implants with adverse local tissue reactions.[arthroplastyjournal.org/article/S0883-5403%2812%2900175-1/abstract]

In March, a large study published in The Lancet showed that there is a 6.2 percent chance patients with all-metal hips will need a replacement within five years, prompting the study authors to call for an end to their use. The month prior, a report in the British Medical Journal warned that hundreds of thousands of people around the world may have been exposed to dangerously high levels of toxic and potentially cancer-causing metals from failing metal-on-metal hip implants. [thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2812%2960353-5/fulltext; bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e1410]

Parker Waichman LLP continues to offer free legal consultations to victims of DePuy ASR and other metal-on-metal hip implant injuries. If you or a loved one experienced premature failure of your implant or other health problems associated with a recalled DePuy ASR Hip Implant or other metal-on-metal hip implant, please contact their office by visiting the firm's DePuy ASR hip implant injury page at http://www.yourlawyer.com. Free case evaluations are also available by calling 1 800 LAW INFO (1-800-529-4636).